Explore the World of Vaults
The Rome Lab at UCLA
The Laboratory of Leonard Rome at UCLA was established in 1979. Since 1986, the Rome laboratory has been studying a novel cellular organelle called a "vault", Vaults were first described (discovered) by Rome and his a former postdoc, Nancy Kedersha, in 1986. Over three-times the size of a ribosome, vaults are the largest cytoplasmic ribonucleoprotein particles known. They are ubiquitous cell structures that have been conserved throughout evolution and are found in phylogeny as diverse as mammals, avians, amphibians, and even primitive eukaryotes like slime mold and amoeba. The particle is thought to carry out a basic cellular function, however, the precise function remains unknown. Currently Professor Rome manages a research laboratory in the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA that is focused on engineering the vault particle as flexible nano-scale capsules for a wide variety of applications from immune oncology to vaccine development to enzyme bioreactors for environmental remediation.
Who is Leonard Rome?
Leonard H. Rome, Ph.D. is a cell biologist and biochemist who has been a faculty member of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA since he joined the Department of Biological Chemistry in 1979. He became a full professor in 1988 and served as the Senior Associate Dean for Research in the School of Medicine from 1997 to 2012. He has been an Associate Director of the CNSI since 2004 and was Interim Director from 2007-2009. In addition, he served from 2001 to 2005 as Associate Vice Chancellor for Research for the Life and Health Sciences. Professor Rome earned his B.S. in Chemistry and M.S. and Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health. Professor Rome is currently Distinguished Professor, Department of Biological Chemistry, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and Associate Director, California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI), in addition he is also the co-founder of Vault Pharma Inc., a startup company that uses the human vault particle to deliver peptide payloads for unique immune signaling.
Vault Pharma
Vault Collaborations active in 2024
Shaily Mahendra, Ph.D. Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Samuelli School of Engineering, UCLA.
Steven M. Dubinett, M.D., Distinguished Professor of Medicine, Dean, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
https://www.uclahealth.org/discover-ucla-health/about/leadership/steven-m-dubinett
Z. Hong Zhou, Ph.D., Professor of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics, UCLA
The Lice Vault Group, Directed by Michael Dondrup, Ph.D. Researcher, The Sea Lice Research Centre, University of Bergen, Norway
David T. Curiel, MD, PhD, Professor of Radiation Oncology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis.
Previous Vault Collaborators at UCLA:
Bruce Dunn, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor, Materials Science and Engineering
Harold Monbouquette, Ph.D., Professor, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Jeffrey Zink, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Joseph Loo, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Biological Chemistry
David Eisenberg, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Biological Chemistry
Heather Maynard, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Kathleen Kelly, Ph.D., Department of Pathology and Lab Medicine
Sarah Tolbert, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Peter Anton, M.D., Professor of Medicine
Timothy J. Deming, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Paul Krogstad, M.D. Professor, Departments of Pediatrics and Pharmacology
Sherven Sharma, Ph.D. WLA, VA
James Wohlschegel, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Biological Chemistry
Isaac Yang, M.D., Professor of Head and Neck Surgery
Otto Yang, M.D., Professor, Medicine, Infectious Diseases, Microbiology, Immunology & Molecular Genetics
Jerome A. Zack, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor, Department Chair, and Co-Director of UCLA AIDS Institute
Jeff F. Miller, Ph.D., Professor, Director of the CNSI; Fred Kavli Chair in NanoSystems Sciences
Previous Vault Researchers Worldwide:
Nancy Kedersha, Ph.D. - Boston, MA
John Heuser, Ph.D. – Washington University, St. Louis
Phoebe L. Stewart, Ph.D. - Case Western Reserve University
George Scheffer - Amsterdam, Netherlands
Rik Scheper, Ph.D. - Amsterdam, Netherlands
Kathy Suprenant, Ph.D. - Lawrence, Kansas
Walter Volknandt, Ph.D. - Frankfurt Am, Germany
Erik Wiemer, Ph.D. - Rotterdam, Netherlands
Lea Harrington, Ph.D. - Toronto, Canada
Robert Moore, Ph.D. - Indianapolis, IN
Deborah Johnson, Ph.D. - Los Angeles, CA
Murray Robinson, Ph.D. – Boston, MA
David M. Ojcius, Ph.D. – UC Merced
George Buchman, Ph.D.
Robert J. Coffey, M.D. - Vanderbilt
Michael M. Meijler, Ph.D. – Ben Gurion University of the Negev
C. Todd French, Ph.D. - Northern Arizona University
Glen R. Nemerow, Ph.D. – Scripps Research Institute
Paul Wender, Ph.D. - Stanford University
Subbu Venkatraman, Ph.D. - UC San Diego
Freddy Boey, Ph.D. - NUS, Singapore
Sierin Lim, Ph.D. - NTU, Singapore
Hideki Tanaka, Ph.D. - Okayama University Japan
Acknowledgements - The Rome Laboratory is grateful for the research support from the following organizations:
NIH (NIGMS, NCI), NSF, Jonnson Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Harold G. and Leila Y. Mathers Foundation, The Oxnard Foundation, UC Discovery, UCLA Spore in Prostate Cancer, UCLA Center for AIDS Research, Vault Pharma
The Vault Website is maintained by the Computing Technologies Research Lab @ David Geffen School of Medicine UCLA. Special thanks to Gene Lacson and Dr. Robert Dennis. The Rome Laboratory is grateful for the research support from the following organizations: NIH (NIGMS, NCI), NSF, Jonnson Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Harold G. and Leila Y. Mathers Foundation, The Oxnard Foundation, UC Discovery, UCLA Spore in Prostate Cancer, UCLA Center for AIDS Research, and Vault Pharma Inc.